Date you should take your tree down as 12 days of Christmas comes to an end
If you've still got your Christmas decorations up, it's time to start thinking about packing them away and banishing them to the attic until next year - as the 12 Days of Christmas are almost over.
We all know the popular 12 Days of Christmas song that runs through the lavish gifts one person received on each day of the festive period, from 12 drummers drumming to five gold rings, all the way down a partridge in a pear tree. But what exactly are the 12 Days of Christmas, and what do they mean?
It's a common misconception that the period known as the 12 Days of Christmas begins before Christmas Day and is a sort of advent that finishes on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day itself. In fact, even though we're now firmly in 2024 and Christmas Day was over a week ago, the 12 Days of Christmas are still ongoing.
The 12 Days of Christmas actually start on Christmas Day, which as we all know is celebrated on December 25th every year in the UK. This means that they run up until January 5th, counting both the start date and the end date. According to Calendarpedia, the 12 Days of Christmas are organised in this way because they encompass several "important religious and secular celebrations", including Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day.
They also include a day known as Childermas, also known as the Feast of the Holy Innocents or Innocents' Day, on December 28, which is a Christian feast held in remembrance of a massacre which is said to have occurred in Bethlehem when King Herod attempted to kill the infant Jesus.
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The end of the 12 Days of Christmas falls on January 5th, which is also known as the Twelfth Night or Epiphany Eve, and comes just before Epiphany on January 6th, which is the Christian holiday that commemorates the baptism of Jesus. Epiphany is not included in the 12 Days of Christmas, as the days serve as a commemoration of the time in between Jesus being born and being baptised in the Jordan River, according to Britannica.
When should I take my Christmas decorations down?
Taking your Christmas decorations down is entirely up to you, but many people like to follow the 12 Days of Christmas and take their decorations down on January 5th, as this marks the end of Christmas celebrations in the Christian faith. This year, January 5th falls on a Friday, so you may need to wait until the 6th if you want to take them down over the weekend.
According to Doctor Michael Carter, English Heritage's Senior Properties Historian, it's said to be "bad luck" to keep Christmas decorations up after January 5th, however, he insisted that it's a "modern invention" and insisted you could keep your decorations up until February!
On the English Heritage website, he states: "Contrary to popular belief, the Christmas season actually continues right through to Candlemas on February 2nd - so there's no real reason why you should take your decorations down earlier.
"The tradition that it is bad luck to keep decorations up after Twelfth Night and the Epiphany is a modern invention, although it may derive from the medieval notion that decorations left up after Candlemas Eve would become possessed by goblins! I'm of the opinion that, after the year we've all had, we certainly deserve to keep the Christmas cheer going a little longer."
When are the 12 Days of Christmas 2024?
The 12 Days of Christmas 2023 began on Monday, December 25th, 2023, and will finish on January 5th, 2024 - which is this Friday. Normally this would mean that Christmas Day 2024 would land on a Tuesday, but this year is a leap year, meaning everything after the end of February is pushed forward by two days instead of one.
This means that Christmas Day 2024 - and the first day in the 12 Days of Christmas - falls on Wednesday, December 25th, while the final day will be Sunday, January 5th, 2025.
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